Expanding
the Search for Victims, Clues & Evidence
"Going to Portland
is nothing. Going to Vancouver is nothing. Going to Spokane is
nothing." Keppel
cautioned against thinking of the Green River killings as only
49 slain or missing women. "Those 49 are news media victims,"
he said. "They are what the news media put together. The police
have a different set of numbers." If only 49 women were killed,
that means the slayings stopped, which may be unlikely. "The likelihood
of stopping is real small," Keppel said. "Every serial killer
we know of in history has continued until he is stopped."
The Green River Task
Force investigation focused on 49 women who disappeared between
1982 and 1984. Most were prostitutes, runaways or beggars. Their
bodies dumped in a remote location, often along the Green
River. Seven women believed to be victims of the Green
River Killer have not been found.
Robert Keppel, believes
investigators must cast a broad net to include unsolved slayings
of women and missing-persons. These cases involve prostitutes
from hundreds of miles around Seattle.
There are cases of
women who disappeared or were found dead in King,
Pierce and Snohomish counties of WA since 1985. "It's not
that we weren't still finding bodies, but they didn't have enough
of the characteristics to be put on the list," said John Urquhart,
King County Sheriff's Office. "When you get down to it, it doesn't
matter if a name is on the list or not. It's still a dead person
who needs to be investigated."
Homicide Information
Tips Systems -- HITS,
claims 68 unsolved cases in King, Pierce, and Snohomish Counties,
started in 1985
and have a tie to other Green River killings.
Detectives plan to
take a hard look at the original 49 Green River
victims and the others who disappeared later, similarly, utilizing
the advances of DNA technology.
Sheriff Dave Reichert
approached sheriffs in neighboring Pierce and Snohomish counties
about forming a joint task force. "We will be very interested
in other (deaths) in other jurisdictions that might turn out to
have a common suspect," Urquhart said.
"Our goal is to solve
these crimes."
The goal is to hold
the killer responsible.
Certainly, Ridgway
is somebody we would look at as a possible suspect in these,"
Urquhart said. "But he's not the only person we'll be looking
at.
Law Enforcement investigators
are comparing similar cases in Vancouver,
BC, Washington County, OR, Portland,
OR and San Diego, CA.